5/20/2021
I have finally decompressed from the whirlwind of P3 year and am reflecting on my final year of didactic learning along with everything it brought with it. This week I have started my first rotation and am looking back at all the experiences from that past year that propelled me to this point in my pharmacy school career.
In the Fall, we started out classes with the option to live stream from home or attend the classroom for instruction in person. Exams & quizzes were still all in person, though organization meetings were strictly via Zoom. I chose to live stream from home for the most part as I have grown accustomed to the convenience and still feel like the quality of my education is maintained in this format. In this semester we took Musculoskeletal, GI, and Endocrine. I actually really enjoyed endocrine because I had begun to feel that diabetes care was a big gap in my knowledge, and I felt much more confident in practicing in the community setting particularly after finishing that class.
This year I served as the Mercer APhA-ASP chapter President, NCPA chapter secretary, GPhA Student Leadership Board Executive Director, and as a member of the APhA-ASP National Standing Committee on Communications. All of these organizations held only virtual events including chapter meetings, annual meetings, and pretty much everything in between. This was a big disappointment for me as one of the highlights of pharmacy school for me is typically attendance at conventions and networking in person with all the members from across the country. I tried to make the best of the situation by still participating in the virtual events and adapting to the new climate of the world post-COVID-19.
I continued to work part time at Walgreens, Innovation Compounding, and NASPA. The variety of experiences as an intern in pharmacy school has been a highlight for me as well as I continue working to determine exactly what I will be pursuing for a career path following graduation (IN LESS THAN A YEAR!?).
On a more personal note, this Fall brought celebrating my 24th birthday, lots of hiking at various locations around Atlanta (a new hobby I picked up during quarantine), going on the annual pumpkin patch outing, visiting Asheville with my family (more hikes!), & dressing up as Tiger King and Carole Baskin for Halloween.
We finished our semester before Thanksgiving this year, and I then immediately got Lasik eye surgery (second best decision of my life) and we also got our new golden retriever puppy (BEST decision of my life)! The long break from school was a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season and get adjusted to our new family member.
The Spring semester brought a quick trip over MLK weekend to the beach with my family, moving to a new rental house (and saying goodbye to our little much loved apartment from the past 3 years), Spring break in Florida with some fellow future pharmacists, and my best friend Sam got engaged!
For classes, we took Infectious disease and Hematology/Oncology. By the end of the semester I was experiencing a serious case of senior-itis, but still managed to finish pretty strong academically. I was able to publish research paper that I completed last year with one of my mentors, Dr. Kinsey. Both pharmacies that I work for began administering COVID vaccines in earnest, and I have now been able to vaccinate hundreds of people, which I feel like is a very exciting moment in history and in the pharmacy world.
We finished out the year with pinning ceremony, which marks the transition from didactic learning to rotations.
I am looking forward to all the eye-opening experiences and learning opportunities that my final year of pharmacy school will bring, and can barely believe that I will be DR. Cunningham a year from now!
